GAOL ROOF DRAMA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1939, Page 6

GAOL ROOF DRAMA

PRISONER’S ORATION. With mirrors thrust through their cell windows, prisoners at Exeter Gaol shared in the excitement created by two of their number who, for nearly an hour, were at liberty on the roof, shouting complaints to a huge crowd in the roadway 80 feet below. One of the men, waving his arms dramatically, alleged rough treatment, and declared that his companion had been on a hunger strike for ten days. His retort to warders, who asked them to come down, was that he was telling the public the truth, and he was prepared to jump off the roof. Taking off his shirt, one of the prisoners asked the watchers to gaze at what he alleged were wounds on his back. The episode took a more dramatic turn as six warders appeared on the roof. Split into three parties, they approached the prisoners. Oaths mingled with shouts of "Chuck ’em off ” and "Cowards ” were yelled from cell windows. The prisoners, who were in their stockinged feet, made no resistance as they were surrounded and led along the roof to the prison interior. Mr G. T. Reid, an onlooker, later told a reporter that one of the men on lhe gaol, roof shouted: "Don’t be excited. We are not going to disrobe.” "When the other man called out, ‘Are we down-hearted'.*’ there was a chorus of 'No' from inside the gaol,” said Mr Reid. Last November a prisoner was on the roof of Exeter Gaol for nearly three hours before the threatened use of a hose-pipe brought him down.